Hotel Hostellerie du Mont Aimé

The village setting in the Champagne region is lovely, and I’d stay here again. We had dinner and breakfast during our one-night stay. Our room was lovely, though the TV didn’t work. Dinner with our large travelling group was fun, and the food was beautifully presented, but service was a bit slow and the meal ran over three hours, so we ended up eating later than we wanted.

The property is lovely, and the staff were very nice when we arrived for an overnight stop on our way to Switzerland. But dinner and the way the complaint was handled outweighed those good first impressions. Service was very slow, and we waited almost an hour for our main course. Guests seated after us were served first. We both ordered beef wellington, but the pastry was poor and very soggy, especially under the sauce. When the maitre d’ hurriedly took my husband’s plate, the knife slipped off and clattered onto the floor. After he picked it up and left, my husband found soggy pastry on his trousers and a splatter on his shirt sleeve. We thought it was an honest mistake, but asked to speak with the manager and explained what had happened. She offered two glasses of champagne. By then we’d already been there for two hours and didn’t want them, so I suggested removing one beef wellington from the bill. Nothing happened before we left the restaurant. The owner then spoke to me and said the maitre d’ had told him he’d done nothing wrong, and that he trusted him over us, despite being able to see the marks on my husband’s clothes. He wouldn’t do anything about it. I told him he wasn’t treating a customer with respect. The next morning, while we were checking out, he said he’d reviewed the video and the knife hadn’t fallen into my husband’s lap. We never said it had. He refused any accommodation, essentially suggesting we were trying to cheat them. I would never return somewhere that calls a customer a liar, won’t accept responsibility for an honest mistake, and has a camera in the dining room without telling customers. Is that even legal?

Our summer trip around Europe was going well until we spent a night in classic room 41. The beds were really bad, making it the worst experience of the trip. We’d prepaid for three nights and tried to switch rooms, but couldn’t, so we left after the first night. I wouldn’t recommend it.

Dinner at the restaurant was quite good, and the hotel rooms were clean and spacious, though a bit dated apart from the more modern bathrooms. There were quite a few letdowns elsewhere. Breakfast was basic, with no salmon, cold pancakes and unremarkable coffee. There was no coffee maker in the room, no sweetener, and the cups there weren’t clean. Towels left on the floor were hung back on the radiator instead of being replaced. The sauna had no bucket or spoon. The sommelier accidentally smashed a wine glass on my head and apologized, but I’d rather not have that happen again.